Will has been on the E.A.S.Y routine from the Baby Whisperer books since he was about a month old. We tried the baby wise routine when we first brought him home, but I decided that book would be better put to use as kindling for a fire.
Anyway, the E.A.S.Y routine has been working pretty well, even though we would stray off of it from time to time, due to missed naps or growth spurt crazy eating. Getting off of the routine makes me feel like my head is spinning or like I can't catch my breath; I like for things to be organized.
Recently we decided it was time to move from a 3 hour routine to a 4 hour one. This is typically done at 4 months and while we're not quite there Will had been showing all the signs like only taking 45 minute naps and waking more at night than he had been. There are several plans for this transition, so we picked one and started it this past Thursday.
It was going really well, but I just keep thinking how I felt Will could just do it without transitioning, husband kept saying okay let's go for it, but I was scared. So Sunday, after an amazing two hour nap, I agreed to give it a go, but if it didn't go well that day we'd go back. It went fairly well, even though he missed a nap since he'd rather cry about shopping than sleep in his stroller (men), and we've been doing it since.
Holidays, especially ones like Monday when we travel to my parents' are hard on routines anyway, and somethings I tinker with the thought of not trying to stick to a routine. Crazy talk, I know, I just said I like that I like things organized, and not like the surprise frequency day we had Tuesday. I tinker with the idea, it seems like it would be so free and liberating, then I snap out of it. Routine works for us. Because of routine, Will is not a snacker, he sleeps well at night most of the time, and he pretty much knows when it's time for a nap (recently it only takes him 5-10 minutes to fall asleep for a nap) so I don't want to mess that up with some crazy no routine idea. Having no routine might work for some people, and that's great, but we've found what works best for us so I think we'll stick with it for now.
Hmmm I've never thought about having a routine lol. Probably because I'm not a very organized person. But if a routine might help Roslyn sleep at night like it does William, I just might have to give it a whirl :)
ReplyDeleteIt really might help. A big part of the routine is to not let him sleep longer than 2 hours at a time during the day, so that he'll sleep longer at night. Here's an example of the 3-hour routine: wake up and feed at 7am (or whatever time you would get up for work and adjust the rest according to that), the book emphasizes that it's important to set a morning wake-up time even though they may be really sleepy the first few days, in which case you would have her nap earlier, but she should be able to stay up for about an hour and a half after eating, so 8:30 nap for an hour and a half, then 10am feed again and repeat the cycle. In the evening you would only do a short nap around 5 or 6 then bedtime after the 7pm feeding.
ReplyDeleteI would let you borrow our book, but I still read it a lot.